In a medical operating room environment multiple independent and discontinuous sterile environments are established. A patient is positioned upon an operating room table and a sterile field around the area surrounds the operative site on the patient is created with one or more sterile drapes. Furthermore, medical practitioners are covered with gowns and other garments worn by medical practitioners in the operating room. Medical practitioners include doctors, nurses and other attendants or persons present in the operating room during surgery. The gowns can include various components for covering the head and face of the practitioner as well as the arms, hands and torso of the practitioner. Each gown includes several sterile components and each practitioner wears a separate gown. Furthermore, the operating room includes a wide variety of tables and stands for instruments, implants, trial implants and other surgical implements used during surgery. Each of these tables or stands has its own sterile field. Thus, the operating room has several independent sterile fields including a sterile field around the patient's incision, a sterile field for each practitioner and a sterile field around various operating room tables.
Unfortunately, the area between the sterile fields is not considered sterile. Thus, the area below the operating table and between the operating table and a practitioner is not considered sterile. Furthermore, the area below and between the operating table and an instrument table is not considered sterile. Also, the area below and between the instrument table and a practitioner is not considered sterile. A sterilized instrument is no longer considered sterile if it happens beyond the sterilized fields. Thus, if an instrument such as a scalpel is dropped to the floor during surgery, it drops below the surface of the operating table, is no longer considered sterile and is no longer to be used during surgery. Thus, what is needed is a draping system that allows for a continuous sterile field to be established between at least some of the various independent sterile fields within the operating room.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,007,741 and 5,816,253 show draping systems used during delivery of a baby. A drape is tied around the waist or neck of a doctor and attached to the operating table. Unfortunately, the doctor cannot rapidly separate from the draping system in case such a need should arise. Thus, what is needed is a draping system that provides a continuous sterile field between a practitioner and the patient yet allows the practitioner to be rapidly separated should the need arise.
In some surgical procedures, such as artheoscopic knee surgery, it is desirable to allow for an extremity of the patient to extend below the surface of the operating table. Thus, it is desirable to provide for a sterile field that may extend below the surface of the operating table. U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,050 shows a pouch for use during knee surgery that extends below the operating table. However, the pouch does not provide for a continuous sterile field between the practitioner and the operating table. Thus, what is needed is a continuous sterile field extending below the operating table that facilitates surgical procedures where a portion of the patient may be positioned below the operating table.
Several components including drapes and practitioner gowns are used to establish a continuous sterile field between the practitioner and the operating table. What is needed is a draping system that reduces the number of components used to establish the continuous sterile field between the practitioner and the operating table.
Several components including drapes and practitioner gowns are used to establish a continuous sterile field between the practitioner and the patient incision area. What is needed is a draping system that reduces the number of components used to establish the continuous sterile field between the practitioner and the patient incision area.
The surgical operating room has a sterile environment. Making a room sterile for an operation is costly and time consuming. This makes it prohibitive for many doctors to perform surgical procedures in their offices. Furthermore, there are instances where surgical procedures suited for a sterile environment are better performed in the field. Such procedures include organ and tissue harvesting and emergency surgery. The traditional operating room does not lend itself to address these needs. Therefore, what is needed is a sterile surgical environment that is mobile and can be used in surgical procedures performed outside of an operating room.
In the mobile surgical procedure environment, lighting and information display can be problematic. For example, if a late night automobile accident provides an opportunity for an emergency surgical procedure or an organ harvest, a fully equipped operating room is typically unavailable. Such situation requires a sterile and properly equipped environment to complete the surgical procedure at the accident site. A properly equipped environment includes a well lit surgical area as well as information screens conveniently available to facilitate the practitioner in the surgical procedure. Thus, what is needed is a portable or mobile surgical environment that further provides for lighting and display of information in a rapidly deployable manner.